rocco
LightNews LightNews
banner
essencerare.bsky.social
rocco
@essencerare.bsky.social
890 followers 590 following 310 posts
i take pictures in LA sometimes.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
essencerare.bsky.social
rocco @essencerare.bsky.social · Jul 11
beach hat day | dodger stadium | mju1 | ferrania p30 | #believeinfilm
dodger stadium full of people wearing beach hats
essencerare.bsky.social
thank’s | mju1 | cinestill 400 | #believeinfilm
ocellated turkey
November 27, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by rocco
nedraggett.bsky.social
Hell with it, I'm just going to post the whole thing here via screencap and alt text. It's Kaleb Horton, man, his writing always deserves the second read, especially since it could have just easily been lost forever like so much else. Read it, share it.
A look at forgotten Hollywood landmarks By Kaleb Horton Let's say you come in from down south, and you're looking for an unsung movie landmark. So you fly in to LAX, rent a car, blow right past Hollywood, leave Los Angeles county heading north, go over the Grapevine, gape at the monumental hills and, wow, there really is a Smokey Bear Road, then you turn off the air conditioner when the sign tells you. Once you come down the grade too fast and see the world's loneliest Denny's, you're well on your way to what you're looking for – the middle of nowhere. You're going to Kern County to find the spot where Alfred Hitchcock filmed one of the greatest scenes in movie history, the crop duster sequence from "North by Northwest." It takes place in Indiana, of course, but the Indiana road sign and the imported corn field can't deceive this Bakersfield native. The parched and desolate heat of the scene feels too much like Kern County. The scene people know off-hand — Cary Grant running from an airplane — isn't why "North by Northwest" is a classic. The film's greatness, as was often the case for Hitchcock, lies in its build-up, its suspense, its mood. The plane moment is almost anticlimax. It is those five minutes before Grant's desperate escape that constitute a mathematically perfect suspense scene. So expert is Hitchcock's hand that he creates suspense, a slow burning dread, with no camera tricks and no music in broad daylight. Grant's character is a prototypical James Bond. His perfect suit, fast wit, high-alcohol tolerance and effortless charisma have got him out of every predicament so far. In the city, among people, he has powers. Take him away from people, put him nowhere, and he's just like us — totally helpless. He has no powers: His suit is no good out here; his million-dollar tailoring and perfect haircut is just vanity now. No amount of pretending can provide escape. Here, is the one place where he can die, and he gets by on the grace of God. All he can do is wait for what's coming. So when you seek the lost landmark of this scene, you're looking for an idea as much as a place. You're on Highway 99 now, going 30 miles north of Bakersfield, looking for an unassuming patch of dirt that carries spiritual weight. The scene was filmed neart Garces Highway to the west of Delano. You'll think there's a handy exit for it. There's not. You'll probably get lost in Delano, counting on a connection. You're at once a million miles from Hollywood and a hundred miles away. It's lonely. The horizon sprawls forever like there's nothing past it. There are broken down trucks on the side of the road, plumes of smoke from faraway fires. You'll find Garces eventually. You'll pass a bar called Rosy's Place, abandoned houses, an oil field, a prison, a cemetery, a sign that says "we clean headstones," and a whole lot of gold-on-brown punctuated by an occasional trailer or car going faster than you. You're looking for where Garces meets Corcoran Road. That's where this "North by Northwest" scene was filmed. You'll get a vague idea where it is but you'll never be exactly sure, since there's little impetus for clear signage 10 miles from a prison. Maybe Corcoran Road is unlabeled. Besides, that Indiana sign and the prop cornfield haven't been there in 56 years. If you're anything like me, you'll lose the light and call it a day, unsatisfied with the route you took. You return to I-5 northbound. From the 5, you'll meet Route 46, and go through a place called Lost Hills, then back in to the location from Corcoran Road instead. That's how Hitchcock probably did it. More intuitive. Still in the middle of nowhere, but on your way to Corcoran Road, you're right next to another Hollywood landmark: Blackwells Corner, James Dean's last stop. It's a glorified Texaco, and gas is 50 cents a gallon more than it should be. They sell Jelly Bellys and '50s kitsch artifacts — plates with Marilyn Monroe's face on them, and so forth. They really figured out how to cash in on death. You don't want to stop here. But I stopped. I asked the kid at the Blackwells Corner counter how to get to Corcoran Road. He gave me a look that said "there's no reason to go there," and then wearily told me where to go anyway. I was about 8 miles from the destination. Going there is a meditative experience. You're not just going to the middle of nowhere. You're going to the perfect nowhere. Going alone, in the hypnotic heat of the Central Calfiornia Valley, you might even forget what year it is. There is no reason to believe the road would be so well preserved for half a century, intimately tied to the career of an actor born in Bristol 111 years ago, but it has been. There's an abandoned house. A barn with a cross on it. But almost nothing has changed in 56 years. At some point new lines were added on the road. There's overgrowth where there didn't used to be overgrowth. A couple discarded Budweiser cans from who knows when, but mostly it's identical. This is the same sleepy loneliness that Alfred Hitchcock used to make great art in 1959. And that may sound dull, but tranquility is the point. You stand on that dirt and there's no distraction from what's in your soul. It's an inner destination, not an outer one. I told my grandma about it when I got back to Bakersfield. She told me her Uncle Harold thought it was the prettiest road in America. And she showed me a picture of a Corcoran grade school class posing in the dirt with Grant and Hitchcock. It's just a field trip picture. The kids are fidgeting, many with arms folded, some shielding their eyes from the sun, all with obedient smiles. They'd all be in their sixties now, but they'd remember where this road is. It emphasized the ugliness of James Dean's last stop becoming a place to sell T-shirts. It's about what we preserve, and what we don't, and what we remember, and what we don't. It's easy to find shrines to morbidity and hard to find meaningful places. For those, you have to go looking.
November 26, 2025 at 9:52 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
madonna | nikon fm2 | ilford pf4 #believeinfilm
virgin mary guadalupe framed outdoor painting next to a potted cactus and a chain link fence. sign above large street address numbers 3021 and 3031
November 25, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by rocco
nhold.bsky.social
one of the disrupters should up-end higher education by inventing a university that has an intellectual life
November 24, 2025 at 3:52 AM
essencerare.bsky.social
giganteum | nikon fm2 | delta 400 | #believeinfilm
giant sequoia tree
November 21, 2025 at 10:20 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
tupac | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm
tupac mural: -TUPAC SHAKUR THE ONLY THING THAT COMES TO A SLEEPING MAN, IS A DREAM.
November 20, 2025 at 3:35 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
flw house | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 | #believeinfilm
concrete textile block house. each block engraved with cross-shaped motifs
November 19, 2025 at 3:27 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
madonna | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 | #believeinfilm
virgin mary guadalupe on a wall with some graffiti on it. you can see it from the street between two parked cars. it’s a very bright day, but there’s some kind of roofed outdoor area on the building above the virgin that is very dark
November 14, 2025 at 3:39 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
overpass | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 | #believeinfilm
graffiti on a rail overpass. lots of deer grass.
November 13, 2025 at 8:22 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
madonna | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm
faceless virgin mary guadalupe mural peeling off cinderblock wall
November 11, 2025 at 3:57 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
motor vehicle inspection | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
large empty concrete facade garage with large sign over door that says… “motor vehicle inspection”
November 10, 2025 at 3:26 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
american cement | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
diamond pattern cement veil over glass and steel
November 9, 2025 at 5:28 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
madonna with popocatepetl and iztacihuatl | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
mural of virgin mary guadalupe, popocatepetl and iztacihuatl
November 7, 2025 at 3:34 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
swap mee | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
decrepit theater, converted into a decrepit swap meet
November 6, 2025 at 3:31 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
cleaners | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 | #believeinfilm
old cleaners sign
November 3, 2025 at 2:04 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
morning glory | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
morning glory flower on a sidewalk
October 31, 2025 at 8:22 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
factory | nikon fm2 | ilford fp4 | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
glass bottle factory. strange building, looks like they took enormous U-shaped magnets, covered them in a corrugated metal sheath, and aimed it the sky.
October 30, 2025 at 2:33 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
oda’s grave | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
a few graves in front of a cinderblock wall. house behind wall with a lot of junk piled up. invasive ailanthus beginning to grow.
October 29, 2025 at 2:30 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
paradise | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
mural on sporta bar of vin scully wearing a lakers jersey, kobe bryant wearing a dodgers uniform
October 28, 2025 at 6:54 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
mosaic | simon rodia | nikon fm2 | kodak gold | #believeinfilm
colorful glass mosaic wall detail
October 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
baptismal font | simon rodia | nikon fm2 | kodak gold | #believeinfilm
baptismal font made of 7up bottle fragments and a special type of cement concoction created by rodia himself. this is in the shadow of the watts towers, which most people don’t realize are part of an outdoor church. the font is functional. there’s a new chrome hose coupler on the side. it was 100+ degrees in watts when i took this picture and i believe i may have temporarily slipped into an altered state of awareness.
October 23, 2025 at 2:06 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
g | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
general mills cereal silo building
October 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
suzuki samurai | nikon fm2 | kodak gold | #believeinfilm
October 21, 2025 at 3:24 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
madonna | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
deteriorating virgin mary guadalupe painted on a piece of wood and affixed to a cinderblock building, topped with barbed wire
October 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
essencerare.bsky.social
agave americana | nikon fm2 | xx | #believeinfilm #blackandwhitephotography
agave americana stalk with many blossoms
October 14, 2025 at 5:38 PM